1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting head and a liquid ejecting apparatus which eject liquid through nozzle openings, in particular, relates to an ink jet recording head and an ink jet recording apparatus which eject ink as liquid.
2. Related Art
As an ink jet recording head as an example of a liquid ejecting head, there is the following ink jet recording head, for example. That is, there is an ink jet recording head which includes an actuator unit on which piezoelectric elements and pressure generation chambers are provided, and a flow path unit having a nozzle plate provided with nozzle openings which communicate with the pressure generation chambers and through which ink droplets are discharged.
The actuator unit is configured by laminating a flow path formation substrate on which the pressure generation chambers are formed, a vibration plate which is provided at one surface side of the flow path formation substrate and on which piezoelectric elements are provided, and a pressure generation chamber bottom plate which is provided at the other surface side of the flow path formation substrate, which is opposite to the vibration plate, on one another (for example, see JP-A-2009-166334).
Each substrate of such actuator unit is formed by a calcined member of ceramics or the like. However, if flow paths and the like are formed on the flow path formation substrate, the vibration plate, and the pressure generation chamber bottom plate, they are individually calcined, and then the calcined members are bonded to one another, there arises the following problem. That is, a problem that positional deviation or deviation in pitch is generated due to fluctuation in contraction by the calcination arises.
Therefore, after the flow paths and the like have been formed on the flow path formation substrate, the vibration plate, and the pressure generation chamber bottom plate, they are calcined in a laminated state. With this, they are integrated with one another without using an adhesive therebetween.
However, in an ink jet recording head obtained in such a manner that after the individual flow paths such as the pressure generation chambers have been formed on the flow path formation substrate, a first member as the vibration plate and a second member as the pressure generation chamber bottom plate are bonded to the flow path formation substrate and they are calcined at the same time so as to be integrated with one another, there is the following problem. That is, in the ink jet recording head, there is a problem in that shapes and dimensions of the pressure generation chambers after the calcination cannot be measured and breakage such as delaminating the first member, the second member, and the like needs to be performed in order to measure the shapes and the dimensions thereof.
If the shapes and the dimensions of the pressure generation chambers which have been contracted by the calcination cannot be checked and measured, the pressure generation chambers of which dimensions are made uniform cannot be mounted on an ink jet recording apparatus. This results in fluctuation in ink discharge characteristics and there arises a problem in that print quality is lowered.
It is to be noted that the above problems arise not only in the ink jet recording head but also in a liquid ejecting head which ejects liquid other than ink.